


A Quiet Morning

by notenoughcoffee



Series: Ignored Instincts [3]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-19 17:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19137412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughcoffee/pseuds/notenoughcoffee
Summary: Prompt: Breakfast hadn't prepared her for today's events.Cleves just wants some peace and quiet.





	A Quiet Morning

Anna always enjoyed being the first one in the house to rise in the morning. She delighted in every peaceful moment as the clock on the wall counted out the passing seconds. Briefly, she contemplated making breakfast for the rest of the girls, but the hues of the sunrise held her to her spot at the kitchen table. Basking in the soft glow of dawn and the cheerful sounds of birdsong, she sipped her coffee and wondered how she had ever survived without it in her life.

When the bands of pink highlighted clouds blended into orange streaks, and veins of yellow melted to soft blues, she rose from her seat to rummage through the fridge. She found little more than a yogurt cup nearly a week past its sell-by date. It was a risk she was willing to take, knowing that anything more complex would most certainly rouse the others at this point. Wanting a bit more time to relish the serenity of the morning, she poured another cup of coffee and took her questionable yogurt back to the table to quietly tuck in and let the birds serenade her.

Aragon was the first to appear in the kitchen as Anna was half-way through her third cup of coffee. She clattered about in the cupboard looking for her favorite mug, ending the tranquility Anna had been enjoying. Once she found her mug, she wasted no time tutting at Anna for leaving the kettle empty. 

“S’just rude,” she griped, giving Anna the side-eye. 

Anna knew this should have been her cue to take her coffee to the garden or back to the solitude of her bedroom, but her nearly empty cup kept her in place. 

“Good morning to you too, Catherine.” Anna politely ignored Aragon’s grunted response and tried to gauge how much longer the kettle was going to take before it reached a boil. 

“Ugh, is the kettle not boiled yet,” came another voice from behind her. Anna turned around to see Parr rubbing the sleep from her eye and pulling her dressing gown tighter around herself as she entered the kitchen. “Please say there’s enough water for me, too.”

“There’s enough. Anna already has hers,” Aragon replied just as the kettle switched itself off.

“Well, actually,” Anna began but couldn’t get much further.

“Great, I’ll just make myself a cuppa and be out of the way.” Parr slipped in front of her and grabbed a mug that had been left to dry next to the sink the night before. The mug belonged to Katherine, and Anna knew no good could come from someone else using it.

By the time the other two finished fussing with their cups of tea and Anna could reach the kettle, she was disappointed to find that it was empty again. Just punishment, she supposed, for leaving it earlier, though nonetheless frustrating as she stared at it, willing it to boil faster.

Her cup of coffee in hand again, she turned to find Aragon with her legs stretched out over several chairs and with pages of the newspaper strewn about the whole surface of the table. Anna rolled her eyes and walked over to the door to the garden. She only made it a few steps outside before she found Parr in her favorite lounge chair, her feet kicked up on the other, and her head lolled to the side as she nodded off. 

Cursing under her breath, she turned around and stepped back inside the house. No sooner did she reach the landing at the bottom of the stairs, did she hear an argument taking place in harsh whispers in the hallway at the top. 

Her meager breakfast hadn’t prepared her for today’s events already.

She weighed her options. Downstairs was going to become increasingly more hectic, downright chaotic if whatever disagreement was already taking place was going to carry on, or she could chance being dragged into the squabble and forced to take a side as she tried to get to her bedroom.

The prospect of finding a calm spot once more won out as she slowly ascended the stairs, taking care to avoid the particularly creaky steps to draw as little attention to herself as was possible. 

She found Jane and Anne at the top, standing at the bathroom door, their whispers turning into growled accusations and irritated excuses about whose turn it was to use the shower first. Anna was seconds away from entering her room when their altercation shifted to a shouting match and the door across from hers opened to reveal a bleary eyed Katherine looking very concerned.

“Kat! Tell her. Tell her that yesterday there was no hot water left by the time I got my shower,” Anne screeched at the girl, grabbing her arm and dragging her to stand between her and Jane as they continued to fight. “Tell her that means I get to go first today!”

Anna watched as Katherine looked back and forth between the two women, disoriented from just waking and baffled at how she had found herself already involved in a quarrel. 

“Katherine, love, tell Anne that it doesn’t matter what happened yesterday. I got here first today, and if she wants to be the first to shower tomorrow, she’ll just need to wake up earlier,” Jane hissed, barely containing her rage, tugging at Katherine’s other arm.

Yanking her back in the opposite direction, Anne yelled, “I did wake up earlier today. You’re being vindictive and set your alarm earlier too!”

Watching as the women pulled Katherine in two directions and demand that she take a side before she’d even fully woken up, Anna knew she would never be content if she left the girl to fend for herself. 

Why hadn’t she taken that cue after her first interaction with Aragon? 

Clearing her throat loudly, she approached the group of three, sidestepped their blockade, closed and locked the bathroom door. It might not have been the privacy she had intended, but at least she could drink her coffee and enjoy a long hot shower in peace… If she ignored the pounding on the door.

  
  



End file.
